NOTES ON THE BOTANY OF ARKANSAS. 



By F. V. Coville. 



My field work on the Botany of Arkansas began on the 

 5th of July and ended August 17, 1887. Of this time two 

 and a half weeks were spent at Little Rock, the remainder in 

 Independence and Stone counties. 



From the botanical notes taken, the following report has 

 been prepared. It must be borne in mind that many of the 

 notes, particularly those on the distribution of species, which 

 are of great value only when a large number have been col- 

 lected, are necessarily omitted. 



The reason that so comparatively little is known of the 

 botany of this State is, to a great extent, due to the scarcity 

 here of amateur botanists. The study of botany "for the fun 

 of it " presents in every country so much that is both useful 

 and pleasant, and in Arkansas, in addition, so much that is un- 

 known, that the writer most heartily commends to the people 

 of the State a careful study of their own wild plants. 



The amateur will ordinarily begin his work by preserving a 

 pressed specimen of each kind of plant that he meets with ; and 

 finding, if he can, its scientific name and common name. As a 

 preface to this a short study of some work on structural botany 

 is necessary. Gray's Lessons in Botany (1), in which direc- 

 tions for preserving plants are also given, answers the purpose 

 admirably. For determining the names, the best book is 

 Chapman's Flora of the Southern States (2.) Dried speci- 



(1). Lessons in Botany, by Asa Gray (Revised, 1887). Ivison, Blakeman, 

 Taylor & Co., New York. 



(2). Flora of the Southern United States. By A. W. Chapman (Second 

 edition). Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., New York. 



